Camping at Mount Rainier National Park
The scent of pine filled the air, and the soft trickling of the creek is the soundtrack of Big Creek Campground at Mount Rainier National Park.
My family loves going on adventures! Hiking, swimming, beach combing, traveling, exploring, camping.
We love to camp, and recently acquired a camper van that we’ve taken out a few times now. When I camp, I do enjoy a little planning but for the most part we wing it.
We live on 4 acres in the woods, so we like to say we’re “glorified camping” every day. So, when we do go camping, I like to choose places where we can explore, and not just sit at the campground.
Mt. Rainier National Park
We love visiting Mount Rainier National Park! “At a height of 14,410 feet, Mount Rainier is the highest volcanic peak in the contiguous United States. It has the largest alpine glacial system outside of Alaska and the world’s largest volcanic glacier cave system (in the summit crater).” – NPS.gov.
Mt. Rainier is located in Southwest Washington state and it’s less than a 2 hour drive away from us, so we visit at least once a year. The mountain offers many things to do; from hiking to sledding.
Pizza from Rainier BaseCamp Bar & Grill
What to do & what we did
There is lots to do on the mountain, and near the entrance. Below is just some ideas on what to do. I’ll also share everything we did on the mountain, and below that, our camping experience.
- Hiking
- Scenic Drives & Waterfalls
- Crystal Mountain Gondola
- Exploring Historic Longmire
- Sledding, snowshoeing & skiing
- Stargazing
- Camping
- Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe
- Restaurants – only a couple though & they can get very packed
Our camping location was just minutes away from the Nisqually entrance. We managed to spend one of the days on the mountain; we drove around, did some hiking and viewed beautiful waterfalls. Our first stop was the Narada Falls – it was a short hike, and very beautiful! Then we did the Carter Falls, which was a longer hike but nice. Before heading back to camp, we swung by Ashford for a pizza.
You need a pass to enter the park, which can be purchased at one of the entrances and is good for 7 days.
Tip: if you are going on a weekend in the summer, my biggest advice is to enter EARLY. Like before 6:30 am, early. We got in line for the entrance at 7:30am on a Saturday and it took us over 3 hours to go 5 miles. We drove straight to Paradise and the parking lot was already full.
Camping at Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier National Park has four campgrounds located on the mountain, and a few right outside the entrances.
Big Creek Campground
We were able to get a campsite at Big Creek Campground located in Ashford just outside the Nisqually entrance. It was a great little campground; plenty of privacy, vault toilets, water spigots, looped – great for bike riding. There’s a fun little creek to explore and it’d be great if you can get a site right next to it. There was plenty of other families, and wasn’t too loud.
There is a trail(Osborne Mountain) that starts at the campground, but we didn’t give it a go. If you’ve done it before, let me know how it is?
5 great Camping Items to bring
Here’s a few of my favorite camping items. They are great whether you’re in a tent, rv, cabin, or camper van.
- Camp Stove – I love the Coleman brand for a camping stove, here’s a great 2 burner stove or if you’re only needing a 1 burner, here’s a great one.
- Water Storage Container with Spigot – whether your campground has a water location or not, having a jug located at your site will come in handy.
- First Aid Kit – even if it just has Band-Aids in it, always have it on you
- Bug Repellent – we seem to have a mosquito problem anywhere we camp in the PNW and so having some kind of bug repellant is a must for us! Bring yourself some mosquito repelling bracelets, candles, spray, even burning dried sage at your campsite works. A head net is great to have too!
- Light – Bringing some kind of light, flashlight, lantern, and a headlamp flashlight works great when you need your hands free.
Hope you enjoyed “camping” at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington with us! Have you ever been, I’d love to hear about it, leave me a comment or send a message. This is also your reminder to get those campsites reserved for the peak season if you haven’t already!
